Hungry for Adventurez

IOverlander is a free, crowd-sourced app designed for roadtrippers, RVers and Car campers. I have recently started to use it to plan out my weekend adventures in Iowa, and find free places to stay overnight. Lately I have been camping solo almost every weekend. While campgrounds are much cheaper than hotels, I have been starting to wonder if I can illuminate the cost and hassle of staying at the more popular campgrounds. (If you want to learn more about ultra low budget travel, read this !) Plus, in the busy summer season, sometimes the popular campgrounds, like Makokita cave and Backbone State Parks are completely booked. iOverlander helps provide some great options to explore a little differently.  How the iOverlander app works  iOverlander is a crowd-sourced app. That means that anybody can log a pin in the app and leave notes on the quality and type of location. People who visit a place later can also add check-ins with pictures and notes to help future travelers. If you a...

panoramic I took from the backbone trail. Here's a map of this state park! As much as I love traveling and being outside, I've never gone camping alone, or even stayed out of town overnight by myself before. This was something I had always wanted to try. It's not always possible to find someone to come with when I get the itch to go on an adventure - I would be out every other weekend or more, if I could. I decided to go to Backbone State Park in Dundee, Iowa over Friday night and hike all day on Saturday on Memorial Day weekend. Let me tell you, I learned a lot. Not everything went as planned, but I will still be doing solo camping again.  Arrival I made great time getting to the park after clocking out. I had packed my car the night before, including shelf stable, hiking friendly food; the weather and traffic were perfect. When I first pulled into the park, I came through the lakeside entrance, and I knew it would be a good trip. The lake, the trees, the sandstone crags -...